I hope this helps, by either causing you pleasure or pain . . .

February 2009

February 26, 2009

American Idol has been atrocious. No excuse for the lame talent this year. I understand the show is now completely about story and image, when it used to be at least 10% about singing. The show needs to die. And although others have come before me, I am officially endorsing a revolution. Vote for Norman Gentle, or Nick, or whatever the dude in the sparkly shirt and headband goes by. His winning would completely undermine any thought of legitimacy the show has left.

And the last singer last night? I may just have a penchant against image, but what's with the hair and the gold chains and the one glove? Yuck!

Vote for this dude

Not this embodiment of all things wrong:

And how creative is Josh Freese? It may actually be desperate, but I love it

February 25, 2009

First off, is this really necessary? Making a Clue movie? Again? The first one was plenty awesome. I realize now, if I say any more, I will be completely plagiarizing the article I linked to. But seriously, one of my all time favorites. I think I can recite every line.

It seems to me that we in America use certain holidays as an excuse to get drunk. I know, obvious, right? Do you get bombed on St. Patty's when you are not Irish? Have you ever been blitzed on Cinco De Mayo, despite not even knowing what it translates to? Earned some beads on Fat Tuesday, despite not celebrating Lent? But I think this is who we are as people. I was discussing this very idea with someone, and they said, "why can't I celebrate Cinco De Mayo, aren't we supposed to celebrate other cultures, and our similarities and differences?"

Really?

Yeah, we should embrace our differences, and we should respect other cultures - but only doing this one day a year as an excuse to get schnicked is not probably our best attempt at diversity.

All that said, who is going out with me on St. Patty's Day?

I really, really want to go to Bonnaroo. Check out the list of artists. If you are wanting some new stuff to listen to, a lot of bands on this list will do. I really can't afford to go, but I desparately want to. Interested?

I used to play video games a lot, but never had anything like this happen

Getting back to Lent. It has always been a strange time for me. Being raised Catholic (which I am actually grateful for, although I am not Catholic now, I know, I seem to be the only one happy with it :)) I always just thought it was a time to eat some fish and "fast." So as I slowly explored my faith away from Catholicism, I stopped practicing Lent altogether, which is really sort of a shame. It's only recently I sort of came to terms with what Lent is supposed to be. Rather than trying to explain, I will link to someone I respect, that puts it better - click here Since most of you won't click that, I will summarize (unfortunately, he captured a lot of my thoughts, he is just far more eloquent than I am).

Lent is not supposed to be a horrible 40 days, in which we suffer, leading up to Easter. Lent is supposed to be a time where we "fast" in preparation for Jesus' coming, and in homage to the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert being tempted by the devil. We sacrifice to better understand Jesus' temptation and the sacrifice he made for us. We also fast because we weaken our flesh, denying it something it wants, traditionally food, so that our spirit is more open to God. This is not obligation - this is about our hearts. We give things up WILLINGLY, so we can better center ourselves on God. If it feels forced or necessary, you probably shouldn't do anything.

We also feast. Every Sunday the early church would pig out together. This was all part of their preparation. Jesus' sacrifice is a good thing.

Over the span of 2000 years, the church has given fasting a different meaning. Typically, people don't live on only water for the 40 days of Lent. As mentioned previously, the Catholic church turned this into giving up meat on fridays. Other churches made this about giving up something, you didn't want to give up. Unfortunately, all too often, we give up something that WE want to get rid of, rather than truly making a sacrifice on God's behalf. Giving up chocolate because you want to lose weight sort of defeats the purpose. Deep down, sacrifice is about where our heart is. Its not what we give up, or if we give something up, but its about whats in our hearts. If you sacrifice something for Lent, give up something you truly don't want to live without. TV? Alcohol? Gossip? Something that is really hard for you to pass up on. And do it with a happy heart (or at least as happy as possible). Give it up because you want to better understand God. Give it up so its one less worldly thing that will steal your attention from God. But never sacrifice begrudgingly - thats not who God is.

I had a good friend once give up buying anything new for 40 days. This was hard for him since he loved to buy crap, especially off ebay. This is maybe what the modern fast can look like.

What am I giving up? Food, lots and lots of food. If you know what I look like, you will know it is the one thing in life I rely on and the one thing I don't want to live without. But my goal is not to lose weight, its just to get closer.

Since most of my blogging is done at work, please forgive all spelling and grammatical errors and lack of quality writing. I am invoicing customers and shipping poduct between sentences. This of course makes me worry that I am not making good points or I am being unclear, which is all the more reason for you to write or comment.

At work, we try to give a little money to charity occasionally. We have had two different organizations try to tell us we should donate again this year at the amount we gave last year - only problem is, they are upping the amount, and claiming its what we gave last year. Does this seem shady to you? No wonder people are skeptical about giving. However this is no excuse to be a miser.

February 16, 2009

I had like 23 views in one day on my blog. Granted 90% of them were probably me, and another 5% were probably my mother, but all the same, those 23 views have inspired me (and what can I say, I am easily inspired. I once vowed to climb Mt. Everest after watching "Rudy" on TNT).

I once observed in my facebook status that Nickelback was lamest band of all time. My friend Eric helped me realize that Chris Tomlin is the christian equivalent of Nickelback - so the same holds true for Chris Tomlin. What I am meaning to say is, Chris Tomlin is lame - and for those of you that are paying attention, I realize Chris Tomlin sounds nothing like Nickelback, but they are similar in that, all their songs sound the same (within their own genre) and both artists . . . songwriters . . . schlock-producers use broad-sweeping lyrics to always tackle the exact same subject (Nickelback loves to sing about sex and the rock lifestyle, Chris Tomlin like to sing about me and Jesushappy fun-land God.

Please check out my friend Eric's blog (btw, until peeking at his blog, I had no idea he mentioned the same topic between Nickelback and Tomlin, but it was his idea originally - so the credit is due)

If you are asking who Chris Tomlin is, I love you right now. If you are asking who Nickelback is, you are lying to yourself. You once tapped your toe, and its ok to repent of that.

Since I am feeling observant, Matt Kenseth is the NASCAR equivalent of Al Gore. And believe you me, I don't really watch NASCAR, but I have seen enough to make that correlation. I think I reached about 1 of 23 views with that comment. Maybe I should try some "broad-sweeping" blogs . . .

Broad-Sweeping attempt No. 1:There is this one guy at work that I cannot stand. He always walks around acting better than everyone else. I mean, like, omg, he drives me crazy. I so don't want to be here today. Maybe if I am lucky I can go to a party this weekend. I cannot believe how tired I am.

Maybe not . . .

So some of you want to rebel against "Vampire Weekend?" Thats fine, but its certainly your loss. I tell you what, go ahead and hate on "Of Montreal", "Joe Pug" and "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds" to name a few - and then why don't you complain about how they don't make good music anymore. Oh, but that's right, you like Nickelback . . .

Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish’d and compacted by the true son of God, the poet,

(He shall indeed pass the straits and conquer the mountains,

He shall double the cape of Good Hope to some purpose,)

Nature and Man shall be disjoin’d and diffused no more,

The true son of God shall absolutely fuse them.…

Now tell me, why is it that a man, who claimed to not really profess any one creed, seems to capture the wonder and mystery of God better than most? Better than Chris Tomlin in my opinion. But then again, this doesn't rhyme and would not make a very comfortable praise song.

Oh yes, you got me. I am jaded. I was the christian counter-culture - and not in a good way. I embodied a lot of what people make fun of regarding the christian "culture" and I am sorry, ok? You are giving me therapy, just don't start charging :). Oh, and if you got too many of those jokes from the previous link, you were part of it too, so just admit to being guilty. What are you guilty of? If nothing else, being cliche. But now that I think about it, I am being cliche because it has become cliche to be anti-cliche. So I guess we are all screwed.

No, of course we are not all screwed. Don't get all fitful. Look, let me break this down, in as few words as possible, which probably will not do any side any justice, but here goes anyway. Whether you "believe" or not believe, it comes down to your heart. Words are never going to cut it. This is something you know deep down - your friends can give all the lip-service to you they want, about any old issue, but you aren't going to believe them 'til they back up their words with action. God is the same way. Do you need to earn God's love? No, you are missing my point. As christians, we can create as many testa-mints and christian cd's we want, but if our heart is not right, none of it matters. Pray your sinner's prayer, but, in your heart, if you don't believe any of it, I am sure God doesn't either. Am I arguing who is going to heaven and hell and all that? No way, I am not touching that one. God is just and fair and he will handle that, but if you want to live a life thats right and good, be it for Jesus, or just to "be a good person", you aren't going to accomplish anything if your heart is not right. Just like you won't lose weight unless you are committed. Saying you are going on a diet does not mean you instantly drop 20 pounds (but it would be great if it did). This is where "christian" culture came from. We would rather create bumper stickers than actually take action.

I am sure that paragraph made no sense. But I feel better

I should really develop my arguments. But if I did that, I am afraid it would not anger people nearly enough. Plus I just don't want to write more than a paragraph or two at any one time. Sure I have more to say, but I only have like 9 topics to talk about, and if I did that in 9 consecutive posts, I would be out of material.

I saw "Friday the 13th" (the new one). You should skip it, unless you are a guy and want to pay 10 dollars for unimpressive boob shots.

I also saw "Corraline" - this is worth it, that is, if you appreciate visually interesting movies. Obviously, its not the deepest movie, but the stop-action filming makes it worth it.

February 13, 2009

It's been a while - It could be that I haven't had anything interesting to say, or that I have been lazy . . . I suppose I prefer the former.

TypePad was offering a free trial - so here we are. Plus I can quickly upload from my new iPhone so . . . And I feel better about things when they cost me money. I know, that's bad.

I love the elipsis by the way . . .

Speaking of iPhonesI am on my 3rd phone in a year. Consumerism is a common theme with me, but I am going to try and avoid it in this post. I will plead not guilty on charges of consumerism however - I was perfectly happy with my Envy - but NO, my job first made me get a blackberry, then the boss wanted iPhones - yes, I do lead a privileged life. And the iPhone is so choice . . . (know what movie that is stolen from? not a direct quote, but the lingo is the same - you get a brownie if you do)

It feels very foreign to talk about myself, and by saying that, what I really mean is - I LOVE to talk about myself. I really do. I am about as egotistical and arrogant as they come. So the seeming foreign comment probably doesn't make any sense - but really it does. See, I decided a while ago that I love myself to much, so I have really tried lately to listen, instead of talk, and take more interest in others than I do in myself. Which then means I should stop blogging. Not to mention the fact that, I have said this same thing before in previous blogs, which means, my first blog in 7 months and I still have nothing new to say. I am like a mockingbird . . .

(Oh and the mockingbird line was recycled too)

Here is something new. . .

Or not

So, you need to listen to Vampire Weekend. Period.

I have an approval addiction. Its pretty serious. I am working on it, but I really think its getting worse. Tell me its going to be ok . . .

I have finally decided to get on the "Family Guy" train. Its just too good of a show. All the flashbacks crack me up. Here is my favorite Poor, Poor Ringo, but I am quite confident this is exacly how it went.

I think what happened to Obama is good. And I would say that about any candidate. The scariest thing that can happen in office is a candidate coming in with a messiah complex and leading without ever being questioned. We ALL need to be held accountable by someone. Even me. It seems to me that the US political system is supposed to work . . . function . . . get by on the system of checks and balances. We have 2 major parties to create polarity. Any time one side is dominant, things can get scary.

Confession: I did not vote for Obama.

Nor did I vote for McCain.

Nor did I vote for President. Want to know why? Just ask, but be ready for a long discussion. Maybe I will blog about it. - Actually I probably won't - but who knows. Either way, know I gave it a lot of thought.

Oh, you should bookmark this page, and comment if you at all like or dislike what I have to say. It will keep me busy, and we all need a hobby to keep us from doing real work.

Anyone else watching "Sober House" on VH1? I really feel for these people. I mean, I really, really do. Its sad. What makes me more sad, however, is when I bring up this show, and these addictions to many of my friends and acquaintances they are often apathetic. Their disdain comes in a variety of different flavors, sometimes its just because they think people that are famous don't have real problems, sometimes it may be because they do not understand addiction. But we are all addicted to something, and often, its not even a very addictive substance. How do I know? Simple, you have started a diet on a Monday before and been eating a Chipotle burrito on Wednesday. Or the last time you were hungover, you swore you never were drinking again, to only crack a beer two days later. Or you said you were never going to talk to him/her again. Or this time, you will really quit smoking. And thats ok - its hard. We all struggle with addiction. Your addiction moves me too. As stated earlier, I am addicted to approval, and food, and probably in a way beer, and telling little white lies, and gossipping . . . Either way, watching someone try to resist heroine is moving. And watching them react to their behavior when high is also gut-wrenching. Maybe its because I understand I am addicted myself. Yet I am not really any better.

Chipotle always sounds good, and I am pretty sure they put crack in their tortillas.

Well I am done for now, and really feel unsatisfied. I am pretty confident I have been a better blogger in the past, but hey, I am rusty.

Oh, and speaking of approval addictions, tell me you think I will be just that more masculine if I start straight razor shaving. It sounds awesome to me

And be looking for an iPhone post. May show you my facial hair february progress